Discovery on the Hominy Creek

      Tuesday, June 4

began with a regular scout of Hominy Creek. Eric Bradford, volunteer leader Bob Ruddy and I set out that morning intending to determine whether an upper section of Hominy Creek was passable for volunteer groups. This didn’t turn out to be a hard question to answer. After hauling our boats up onto a steep bank and back down to avoid a rocky impasse, being forced to stop in multiple places to saw away at fallen trees blocking our way, drifting through a construction site, and getting stuck on a pipe built straight across the river, not only were we all sure this was not suitable for less experienced volunteers, Bob and I were practically begging Eric to call it quits when possible. By three o’clock, we were barely halfway through the section with the worst ahead of us and no foreseeable way out until we could manage to reach the Hominy Creek River Park much later that night.

      Imagine our surprise, then, when our adventure was interrupted by the sight of a rail-thin calf shifting uneasily along an eroded bank. I thought little of it until Eric said, “Well, looks like we may be saving a calf today.” This gave me an unsure glimmer of hope; I thought maybe this would just be another delay, dragging out our excursion even further, but there was also the chance this could be my escape.

      We climbed up the bank onto the pasture above and Eric checked the GPS on his phone, and realized that, against all odds, this was in fact the property of Mike Crowell, with whom he was well acquainted. Eric called Mike, beginning a short wait which I chose to occupy by fretting over whether one of the cows in the pasture would hear the calf’s whimpers and feel the need to “protect” it at our expense. Fortunately, the farmer came before too long to haul the the calf up the bank by its ears. We all hopped into his truck, I with the calf straddled across my lap, and left.

      According to the farmer, the calf had most likely been born the day before, had never eaten, and would have died the next day. However, he said he would be able to get the calf some formula and save it. Eric did let us call it a day; even so, it was already 5:00. As we were leaving, Eric remarked it may be a while before he ate beef again.